Consumer Internet companies haven't fared too well at the University of Washington Business Plan Competition in recent years, with judges typically leaning toward upstarts with more advanced technologies in the fields of medical devices, electronics or clean tech. But that changed tonight at the 13th annual gala as YongoPal -- an online English language education service designed for South Korean students -- took home the top prize.

The YongoPal founders -- Darien Brown, Daron Hall, Jon Hickey and Kyung Hee Yun -- appeared almost shocked as they hoisted the giant $25,000 check at an awards ceremony tonight at the Bell Harbor Conference Center in Seattle. In fact, the lack of consumer Internet upstarts in the final rounds of past competitions wasn't lost on Brown.

"We were really surprised to make it as far as we did," said Brown, whose team proudly wore their matching blue YongoPal T-shirts. "This is really exciting to us, and really, really unexpected."

Brown said that they entered the competition to make some key connections in the business community, and after the first rounds they had already achieved that goal. They are just now starting to market the service, with a goal to sign up as 150 to 200 students this summer. By next year, he said the goal is to reach 2,500 students.

The second place finisher was Empowering Engineering Technologies, a UW startup whose founders included Brian Glaister, Chie Kawahara, Katie Mulholland and Jason Schoen. Glaister said the company -- which is developing a medical device called the ExoWalk based on patented technology from the Cleveland Clinic -- is trying to get "people out of wheelchairs and walking again." It received a $10,000 prize.

Winners of the $5,000 finalists prizes included:

Febris, a Washington State University company which is developing a tool to detect viral infections before physical symptoms emerge. It was led by Jason Burt, Alice Lombard, Andrew Lombard and Michael Whittaker.

Emergent Detection, a handheld device maker used to measure one's personal fat loss. Team members included Eric Fogel, Joel Gjuka, Keegan Hall and Amanda Mathes.

You can see all of the Sweet 16 finalists here. Through a grant from the Herbert B. Jones Foundation, those teams now have the opportunity to push their business ideas ahead and earn $25,000 in "Milestone Achievement Awards."

In total, 92 business plans from 15 colleges and universities were submitted for this year's competition.

I served as one of the preliminary round judges this year. And during those early rounds, I was able to spend a little bit of time chatting and taking video of some of the entrepreneurs.

Here's the video from tonight's winner, YongoPal.